> > An important tip for ending extended contests quickly is to
remember that
> the
> > Narrator has total control over the NPCs' bids. If the contest is
dragging
> on
> > and isn't fun any more, just have the NPCs bid *all* their APs on
their
> next
> > actions. That should finish the contest very quickly, one way or
another.
> ;)
>
> And the "7 AP for -1 Penalty" rules do about the same thing as what
Simon
> suggests.
In my experience so far, I haven't found that it does. There is usualy a few points difference in the ability ratings of the two sides, and enhancing using magic or aid from alliesmean the actual target numbers shift slightly through the contest anyway. maybe statisticaly a -1 wound here or there has an effect, but it certainly feels as though trading in AP losses for wounds just makes the contest longer. Your opponent still has to go to 0 AP to lose, and he's lost fewer APs than he would have due to traidng in for the wound.
Also betting high isn't IMHO a very satisfactory solution either. You have to come up with in-world actions for the characters that are all-or-nothing, and after a while it gets to seem a bit silly.
I'd much rather a system in which combat, for example, realy is very dangerous. A slippery slope of negative modifiers seems much more dramatic and life-threatening than a nebulous AP loss that doesn't intuitively seem to affect the actual odds (of the next die roll anyway).
Yes, a character that suddenly got hit for a -10 penalty is in deep trouble, much more so than if he'd just lost 10 APs (out of 20 or so, typicaly). To me that's good, because it's dramatic. This guy needs help from his friends, spirits, etc.
When I'm GMing, the PCs often have a marginal edge on the opposition. I think that's pretty common, as the PCs should have a reasonable chance of success in most situations (with some exceptions). They know this, and often bet enough APs in the first round that if the opponent loses he'll almost certainly be wiped out, but little enough that if the PC looses he'll probably have a few APs left. It's a fairly low-risk strategy for the PCs that greatly shifts the odds in their favour compared to what you would expect from the relative ability ratings. To me, that seems highly unsatisfactory. In a Sudden Death contest, it's a much more high-risk strategy. The PCs are much more likely to adopt low-risk, low-AP tactics for fear of getting themselves into an unrecoverable situation. On the other hand, if they want to bet all on a single roll, they still can.
Simon Hibbs
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